It looks like the unfortunate deaths of innocents in the U.S. missile strike on the Pakistani town of Damadola may become a side story, as the importance of what the U.S. military accomplished with the strike becomes clearer. At least three major al Qaeda players are dead. Lamentable as the civilian deaths are, this was a successful mission.
Midhat Mursi, 52, also known as Abu Khabab al-Masri, was identified by Pakistani authorities as one of four known major al Qaeda leaders present at an apparent terror summit in the village of Damadola early last Friday morning.The United States had posted a $5 million reward for Mursi's capture. He is described by authorities as the man who ran al Qaeda's infamous Derunta training camp in Afghanistan, where he used dogs and other animals as subjects for experiments with poison and chemicals. His explosives training manual is still regarded as the bible for al Qaeda terrorists around the world.
Pakistani officials also said that Khalid Habib, the al Qaeda operations chief for Pakistan and Afghanistan, and Abdul Rehman al Magrabi, a senior operations commander for al Qaeda, were killed in the Damadola attack. Magrabi, sources told ABC News, was the son-in-law of Ayman al-Zawahiri, al Qaeda's No. 2 man.
(via CQ)
Radical leaders are trying to rouse Pakistani Muslims to jihad against America, with some success it appears. But the more liberal component of Pakistani society has to realize, like the Iraqis are beginning to, that rule by al Qaeda is not the future they want. Whether Musharraf will ever allow them anything close to the freedom Iraqis now enjoy is another question. For now I just hope he survives the next few Islamist attempts on his life, and continues to be more with us than agin' us.
Posted by dan at January 20, 2006 9:00 PM